Love Me Tonight

Starring:Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Charles Ruggles, Charles Butterworth, Myrna Loy, C. Aubrey Smith, Elizabeth Patterson, Ethel Griffies, Blanche Friderici, Joseph Cawthorn, Robert Greig, Bert Roach, Ethel Wales, Tyler Brooke, Rita Owin, Carrie Daumery, Edgar Norton, Cecil Cunningham, Tony Merlo, Rolfe Sedan
Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Studio: Kino Video
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Not outdated at all!
Funny, charming -- and a stylistic breakthrough
A Landmark Musical
exquisite and very funny........
Another Rodgers & Hart Gem!

Love Me Tonight
Starring: Maurice Chevalier , Jeanette MacDonald , Charles Ruggles , Charles Butterworth , and Myrna Loy
Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Manufacturer: Kino Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Musicals & Performing Arts | Genres | DVD | Video

( L ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B0000UX4V2
Release Date: 2003-11-25

Amazon.com

The best movie musical you've never heard of is Love Me Tonight, a deliciously clever 1932 Rodgers and Hart romp. The film opens with a tour de force, as the rhythmic sounds of a Paris morning morph into music and we meet a humble tailor (Maurice Chevalier) whose future looks bright. At least he thinks so. And then the great song "Isn't It Romantic?" kicks in, introduced by Chevalier but immediately handed off to client, cab driver, and a series of tune-carriers who finally bring the catchy melody to a dreamy princess (Jeannette MacDonald). It's probably the giddiest sequence in a very fun film, and "Isn't It Romantic?" would continue popping up in Paramount movies for years (Billy Wilder was especially partial to it). The humble tailor must travel to the princess's chateau to collect a bill from family playboy Charlie Ruggles, which puts Chevalier in pleasant proximity to MacDonald and saucy Myrna Loy. It also brings forth more Rodgers and Hart goodies: the classic "Lover" (a great romantic waltz played here as a lark), "Mimi," and the title song. Rouben Mamoulian directed, in the full stride of his early-sound creativity (this was just after his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), using a variety of effects that look positively New Wave. Chevalier and MacDonald are a delight together (by all means see them in The Love Parade and One Hour with You, too), and Charlie Butterworth has some glorious moments as a prospective MacDonald suitor. Also worth the price of admission: the spectacle of crusty character actor C. Aubrey Smith singing. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

Not outdated at all!.......2007-06-27

This movie, old as it is, is not outdated at all! Enjoyed it very much. Only wish it have English subtiltes for those of us who are hard of hearing. Maurice Chevalier is wonderful! I wish they have more of his early novies on DVD. I rate this movie very high, it is that good!

Funny, charming -- and a stylistic breakthrough.......2007-01-10

So I'm watching "Dreamgirls" --- well, sort of watching; the screen is blurred by my tears of joy at the mere existence of such a dazzling achievement. And I'm thinking that it's ever so slightly familiar.

It's not the theme, though this is hardly the first film to show how original art is watered down so it can thrill a mass audience.

It's not the music, which starts as strong soul, transits through powerful R&B and ends up as a homogenized vehicle for a star who is, by now, just "passing" as a black woman.

Ah! It's the way the story is told, a quasi-operatic style in which dialogue segues into song --- and instead of talking to one another, characters sing their thoughts back and forth.

And then, because although I have trouble remembering last week, I'm strong on old movies, I got it: "Dreamgirls" is cousin to "Love Me Tonight," a 1932 musical by Rouben Mamoulian.

You may never have heard of this film. Blame that on television, which long ago turned away from late-night broadcasts of black-and-white classics. Had "Love Me Tonight" been on and had you seen the opening sequence, you would have been hooked --- it's that rare combination: great originality and total fun.

We're in Paris. Early morning, as the city awakes. A workman shows up with a pick and starts chipping away at the pavement. Another sweeps. A knife sharpener puts an edge on the first blade of the day. Two cobblers take seats outside their shop and hammer at heels. A woman beats a carpet.

It's pure rhythm --- street sound as melody. And it's just a little too much for young Maurice Chevalier, who shuts his window, finishes dressing and heads downstairs. But hey, he's Maurice Chevalier; as he walks down the street, he sings to his neighbors. And they sing back to him.

Time to get serious: Maurice is a tailor. A good one. And, he thinks, a lucky one --- he has just made 15 suits for Vicomte Gilbert de Vareze, the most fashionable man in Paris. His future is assured.

You know the punch line: The Vicomte is a penniless deadbeat who has stiffed every tradesman on the block. He lives off crumbs from his disapproving uncle, the Duke d'Artelines. So Maurice charges off to the Duke's chateau to extract payment.

On the way, he meets Jeannette MacDonald, and falls instantly in love. Once at the chateau, there is the inevitable confusion about Maurice's identity --- the last thing the Vicomte wants his uncle to know is that a tailor has come to collect a small fortune --- and Maurice gets the chance to try his charm on MacDonald, who it turns out, is a widow.

Not just any widow. A widow who feels she is, at 21, "wasting away." Her doctor, with an eye on her breasts, disagrees. His diagnosis: She's "being wasted."

Throughout, the dialogue is brisk and racy:

Jeanette: What are you doing now?
Maurice: I'm thinking. I'm thinking of you without these clothes.
Jeanette: Open your eyes at once!
Maurice: Oh no, pardon, madam. With different clothes. Smart clothes.

No wonder the censors snipped some 15 minutes from the film.

The music is by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart. It includes such classics as "Isn't It Romantic?" and is, as the opening sequence suggests, integral to the film. But let Mamoulian explain: "I decided to make the movie lyrical, thoroughly stylized: a film in which the whole action of actors, as well as the movement of camera and cutting was rhythmic. Then I got Rodgers and Hart to write the music....We finished the whole score before I began to work on the script. We did the whole thing to a metronome, because we couldn't carry an orchestra round with us."

Mistaken identity. Stars at their zenith. Classic songs. Double entendres galore. Even a happy ending: "Once upon a time there was a princess and a prince charming...who was not a prince but who was charming...and they lived happily ever after."

If you have any weakness for old movies, don't miss "Love Me Tonight."

A Landmark Musical.......2006-02-01

Another perfect film is now readily available on DVD. This film is widely recognised as one of the best musicals ever. It combines a superb Rodgers and Hart score with the subtle sexy humour of Ernst Lubitsch and the visual flair which Rouben Mamoulian, the director, brought to so many of his films.

Maurice Chevalier plays a tailor who meets princess Jeanette MacDonald when he visits her castle to collect outstanding debts from Charlie Ruggles. Macdonald is a widow who keeps fainting not from "wasting away" as the doctor diagnoses, but "being wasted". Macdonald falls for Chevalier and after a few plot devices which will keep them apart because he is a commoner, they reunite to live happily ever after. If the story sounds like a fairy tale, it is but that does not detract from the enchantment of the piece.

Chevalier plays his usual charming self and Macdonald is sexy and funny in a way she rarely showed with Nelson Eddy. Myrna Loy is ravishing as her nymphomaniac cousin and this comes as a surprise to those who know her as the perfect wife. All of the supporting cast are memorable though Charlie Ruggles steals every scene in which he appears.

The score includes the incomparable "Mimi", "Lover" and "Isn't it Romantic". The commentary by Miles Kreuger is outstanding, avoiding mere biographical details and really giving us insight into the relevance of this film in 1932 and why it still stands up today. There is a lot of information about what was cut from the film when it was reissued, cuts which have been lost for ever at this date. The DVD print is excellent but there is quite a bit of background surface noise at times which can be distracting.

exquisite and very funny...............2005-11-21

If you haven't seen "Love Me Tonight," or are not familiar with it, I definitely reccomend that you check it out. This is a great example of the brilliance of the collaboration of Richard Rogers (songwriter) and Lorenz Hart (lyricist). Not only is the music witty, biting and intelligent (and has stood the test of time today), full of innuendo and pointed jabs at the hang-ups of society and the class system, but the whole film succeeds as a musical, comedy, love story and social commentary.

Maurice (Maurice Chevalier) is a Parisian tailor dripping with charm, wit and a true "joie de vivre" (joy for life). He is truly content to make suits for his customers, flirt with pretty mademoiselles and muse on his future--ideally with a wife and a pack of children on the way. It is when one of his royal customers (Charles Ruggles) stiffs him on the payment of fifteen suits that he decides to seek redemption and payment for his merchandise. It is on his journey to the chateau of this customer, that he encounter the beautiful Princess Jeanette (Jeanette McDonald), a 22 year old young lady wasting away in her tower, awaiting the arrival of Prince Charming.

This musical combines racy, pre-censorship code humor, hysterical musical numbers comparable to up-tempo comedic operatic arias, and cutting edge camera tricks (slow motion, zoom lense, etc.) that were years ahead of its time. You can tell that the young Maurice Chevalier was getting a kick out of hamming it up for the cameras, as a true, romantic Frenchman, in love with love. I will honestly be surprised if you don't get swept up in his infectious warmth or the irrerepressible charm of this great, underappreciated little masterpiece......

Another Rodgers & Hart Gem!.......2005-09-29

Could this be the most innovative musical of all time? Certainly no one can surpass Rodgers & Hart at their best. What a treat!

Glamour Girls (Love Me Tonight / The Blue Angel / Pandora and the Flying Dutchman / The Good Fairy / Lured)

Average customer rating:

Beware! No German Blue Angel

Glamour Girls (Love Me Tonight / The Blue Angel / Pandora and the Flying Dutchman / The Good Fairy / Lured)
Starring: George Sanders , Lucille Ball , Charles Coburn , Boris Karloff , and Cedric Hardwicke
Director: Douglas Sirk , Albert Lewin , and William Wyler
Manufacturer: Kino Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

Special Interests | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

( G ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B000IONJLA
Release Date: 2006-11-21

Amazon.com

Five different Hollywood queens are represented in Glamour Girls, a fun Kino compendium of Golden Age titles. The entertainment value of this batch almost makes you overlook the fact that the movies have nothing to do with each other. The oldest film is The Blue Angel, the legendary 1930 classic (filmed in Germany by American director Josef von Sternberg) that made Marlene Dietrich an instant star. The story of an eminent professor (Emil Jannings) brought to his knees by seductive showgirl Lola Lola (that's Marlene) never loses its power, and von Sternberg's eye for voluptuous chiaroscuro and exquisite sado-masochism is fully expressed (he and Dietrich would make six more films at Paramount in the following half-decade). One important note: this is the English-language version of the picture (not dubbed, but shot concurrently with the superior German-language version).

Love Me Tonight is the best movie musical you've never heard of, a deliciously clever 1932 romp with Maurice Chevalier as a poor Paris tailor and Jeannette MacDonald as a wealthy aristocrat. Rouben Mamoulian's direction is a landmark of early-sound ingenuity, and the Rodgers and Hart score includes such goodies as "Isn't It Romantic?" (given an epic treatment here), "Lover," and "Mimi." The Good Fairy, from 1935, showcases the wonderful Margaret Sullavan, the throaty-voiced actress whose quicksilver reactions look as fresh and delightful today as they were 70 years ago. Sullavan begins the comedy as an orphan, becomes a theater usherette, and eventually becomes involved with meatpacking magnate Frank Morgan and bewhiskered lawyer Herbert Marshall. The matching of director William Wyler and screenwriter Preston Sturges is not a natural one, to be sure, and Wyler's direction tends to weigh the film down (he was, however, enchanted by Sullavan, whom he married--briefly). The great Sturges patter shines through, and you'll adore Sullavan.

1947's Lured puts pre-TV Lucille Ball in London, where a murderer is killing women he meets through the personal ads. The whodunit isn't difficult to guess, but director Douglas Sirk brings his elegant German precision to the proceedings, and George Sanders and Boris Karloff head a nifty cast of supporting folk. Finally, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) matches Ava Gardner and James Mason in a daft blend of mythology and Hemingwayesque Lost Generation stuff. Ava is surrounded by dashing suitors, but Mason's mystery man lures her into the realm of myth. The movie's got giggle-worthy plot twists and great Technicolor, to say nothing of glamour. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

Beware! No German Blue Angel.......2006-12-07

This set only contains the English version of the film. You still need to shell out $31.00 for the earlier KINO release of the film that has both the German and English versions. If the superior German version had been included, this set would have received a 5 star rating.

LOVE ME TONIGHT with Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald (Ama-me esta Noite) (High Quality Import Edition)(NTSC format-Region 1-Playable in North America)

Average customer rating:

LOVE ME TONIGHT with Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald (Ama-me esta Noite) (High Quality Import Edition)(NTSC format-Region 1-Playable in North America)
Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Manufacturer: Classicline
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
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ASIN: B000ILCKO0

Product Description

Brand new, factory sealed, fully licensed DVD manufactured in Brazil. NTSC format. Playable on any North American DVD player. High quality full screen black and white image. Original English dialog with optional subtitles in Portuguese. Portuguese subtitles can be easily turned off. The following review appears in Amazon for the VHS edition: "Rouben Mamoulian's LOVE ME TONIGHT is the finest impersonation of Ernst Lubitsch in the history of Hollywood. It helped that he borrowed two of Lubitsch's most widely used stars. Jeanette MacDonald had appeared in Lubitsch's MONTE CARLO in 1930 (with the marvelous Jack Buchanan, who is best know for his great role in THE BAND WAGON) and Maurice Chevalier had appeared in 1931's THE SMILING LIEUTENANT, and the appeared together in THE LOVE PARADE of 1929 and ONE HOUR WITH YOU earlier in 1932 (they would appear together again in Lubitsch's superb THE MERRY WIDOW in 1934 in one of the last great comedies before the Code). If Mamoulian doesn't quite match Lubitsch in the latter's unsurpassed magic with the camera, he nonetheless more than equals him in his sense of play, of class conflict, and impish sense of mischief."

Average customer rating:

Tom Jones - 40 Smash Hits

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

Best of Tom Jones
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ASIN: B000BJPF82

Product Description

Tom Jones has sustained his popularity for more than three decades. His recordings have spanned the spectrum from Pop and Rock to Standards, Rhythm & Blues to Rockabilly, Country to Dance and contemporary urban sounds. He is a vocal powerhouse with the ability to give his audience every ounce of his energy, enthusiasm & concentration. Tom is a natural a Welshman, a worker and an artist whose charismatic persona makes him one of the most respected, admired and loved performers in modern music. TRACK LIST: 1) Green Green Grass Of Home; 2) Fools Rush In; 3) Fever; 4) We Don't Talk Anymore; 5) She's a Lady; 6) Daughter Of Darkness; 7) Say You'll Stay Until Tomorrow; 8) Take it to the Limit; 9) Save The Last Dance For Me; 10) Too Much Too Little Too Late (with Deniece Williams); 11) Behind Closed Doors; 12) Starting Over; 13) Upside Down (with Dusty Springfield); 14) Baby Face; 15) Such a Night; 16) Heartbreak Hotel; 17) Spanish Eyes; 18) Oh Pretty Woman; 19) Ain't it Funny How Time Slips Away; 20) You Are The Sunshine of My Life; 21) What's New Pussycat; 22) Love Me Tonight; 23) Do Ya Think I'm Sexy; 24) Let It Be; 25) Darlin'; 26) A Heartache Tonight; 27) Four Walls; 28) I Can See Clearly Now; 29) Cupid; 30) Delilah; 31) Endless Love (with Dionne Warwick); 32) I Get a Kick Out of You (with Juliet Prowse); 33) Spanish Harlem; 34) 9 to 5; 35) Don't Be Cruel; 36) Hound Dog; 37) Memphis Tennessee; 38) Lady Madonna; 39) Breaking Up is Hard to Do; 40) Rock and Roll Music. ++++ DVD FEATURES: This officially licensed release from South Korea is All-Region NTSC Code 0 (plays worldwide) and has 4:3 Full Screen dis;pay with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound in ENGLISH.

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